Further information on the reduction of micropollutants in wastewater

Here we provide links to relevant articles and offer summaries of studies on micropollutants and its reduction from wastewater. We also discuss solutions and issues such as cost of removing pharmaceutical residue. New content will be added every month. Please feel free to comment or provide more information in any discussion.

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Everyday we use different kinds of chemical products, most of which are man-made and are not broken down easily. As a consequence, they will eventually end up in our environment. A significant number of studies proved that their presence in both soil and water bodies can have serious effects.

As revealed by many studies conducted in both pilot and full-scale it is clear that ozone, being a powerful oxidant, not only removes organics and micropollutants in the wastewater but also reduces the toxicity significantly.

Rodayan et al. (2014) carried out a bench-scale ozonation test to remove 7 psychoactive drugs (also referred as “drug of abuse”) from secondary wastewater effluent, employing different ozone to drug molar ratios. The total initial concentration of the drugs in the wastewater was adjusted to be around 100 µg/l.

Wittmer et al. (2015) investigated the change in UV absorbance of wastewater effluent before and after ozone treatment as a simple control strategy to optimize ozone dose for micropollutant removal. Laboratory batch experiments were carried out using wastewater effluent from 3 different Swiss WWTPs (Eawag, Werdhölzli and Uster).

Human and veterinary antibiotics have been found widespread in different environmental compartments due to their persistence and low degradability. As a consequence, the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains is increasing in the environment.

Surface water is considered as a valuable resource for drinking water supply. However it is evidently being threatened by continuous release of unwanted chemical residues, primarily from wastewater treatment plants.

The following videos provide an insight of pollution in our receiving water due to micropollutants such as pharmaceuticals.

Surface waters, such as rivers and lakes, receive large amounts of waste water from industrial, agricultural, and domestic sources as well as from municipal sewage treatment plants. These waters, which contain unidentified substances, are typically used as the source of drinking water.

Micropollutants occur in the environment mainly due to wastewater treatment plant discharges. The following links of articles investigates the occurrence of micropollutants in WWTPs and the environmental risks associated with their exposure.

The huge number of research reports addressing ecotoxicity and the potential threat associated with exposure to pharmaceuticals and other micropollutants has resulted in increased environmental concern and awareness worldwide.